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MIKE RUTSEY, QMI Agency

Oct 29, 2011

, Last Updated: 12:05 PM ET

After a plucky 4-10 season, if there is such a thing, the Buffalo Bills wound up with the No. 3 pick in last spring’s draft.

With gaping holes to plug up and down their lineup, the Bills brain trust, unlike the previous year when they were blinded by the razzle-dazzle of running back C.J. Spiller, went with a meat-and-potatoes selection in Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus.

Applause rang out from a number of quarters.

Six games into his professional career, Dareus has not dominated with the ferocity that Ndamukong Suh showed in his rookie campaign, but the Bills coaching staff believes that one day soon that will come.

Like the year before the Bills are having trouble stopping the run in this campaign — they rank 30th in the league — but in Dareus defensive line coach Giff Smith believes they plucked out a real plum.

“When you have an opportunity to draft somebody like Marcell it’s obviously a bonus for a defensive-line coach,” Smith said Friday after practice. “It’s been a learning curve for him, making the transition (from college to pro). But he’s finally healthy. He’s been having a nagging ankle problem throughout the process and he’s finally healthy and it’s starting to come together for him. He’s got a chance to be a heck of a player in the NFL for us and we’re excited about it.”

Not that he’s been a stiff in his opening six. On the season he has made 15 tackles, 11 of them solo, and has produced one of the Bills’ four sacks. Among all rookie defensive linemen, his 15 tackles rank eighth.

Smith believes that supplies only a taste of what Dareus can achieve, that the sky is the limit for the easy-going, 6-foot-3, 340-pound native of Birmingham, Ala.

“He’s a smart kid and he’s got good size and he’s a tremendous athlete,” Smith said. “So he’s not only able to help you versus the run, but he can give you some pressure on pass too.

“We thought he was a complete player coming out and he came from a system where they do a nice job down in Alabama and we thought the transition could be fast and it has been fast for him. He has the unique ability to take over a game and we’re waiting and striving and working toward it and I think he’s getting close to being a dominant force for us.”

One thing that Dareus has not had a problem with is handling the pressure that being a high draft choice brings. He is at ease with who he is, where he comes from and what he can bring.

“He’s got a unique edge to him,” was how Smith put it. “He’s a very confident kid but he’s not an arrogant kid.

“He knows he’s good but he’s humble at the same time and that’s a unique quality about him. That’s probably been the most pleasing thing. He stood in with the veterans, he’s learned from the veterans, he’s taken coaching well. He’s a student of the game. He obviously had the athletic ability and we felt he had the off-field ability to make that jump for us and so far he’s done that.”

If Dareus wanted to fold or hide or get down on himself, he could have done that any number of times in his past.

When he was age six his father, Jules, died leaving his mother, Michelle Luckey, to raise six boys and one girl.

During his youth, his grandmother, Ella Alexander, played a big part in his development but she passed away when he was 13.

Hours after he signed to play for the University of Alabama, his high school coach and one of his mentors, Scott Livingston, was killed in a car crash.

Then in May of 2010 he received his biggest blow when at age 47, his mother died due to complications associated with congestive heart disease.

“I was always taught that you shouldn’t worry about what’s going on right now, you should look at the end result,” Dareus said of his determination and unbeatable spirit and inner strength. “I’ve seen so many players come from where I am make it due to the fact that they stayed focused, gave 110% and stayed focused on it and eventually got there.”

It’s a long way from Birmingham to Buffalo but the fit seems to be the right one for Dareus.

“It’s such a homey feel here,” he said with a wide grin. “It’s like we just play around all day. It’s like being in a room with a bunch of brothers and we all kid on one another.

“Because they’ve had some bad years here in the past, there’s nobody with a big head here, like ‘I’m bigger than you because I did this. I’m bigger than you because I did that.’ Everybody is on the same level. It’s such a great feeling here and I love it.”